As they have throughout the first seven episodes of Netflix’s Spanish medical drama Breathless, the personal and professional lives of Joaquin Sorolla Hospital’s residents intertwine in the finale, “Cold Drop”. As an ending, Episode 8 has the right tone but opts – as most streaming shows do these days – to leave things open for a potential second season instead of being truly resolved.
There’s every chance that this show’s specific blend of soapy Elite-style shenanigans and Grey’s Anatomy-style medical drama will be a hit, in which case this approach will pay off in the long run, but if things don’t work out for the series, it’s easy to imagine the climax feeling a little unfulfilling.
Let’s break down the finale’s fateful stormy day in Valencia, where all roads converge.
Oscar’s Overdose
Oscar’s erratic life choices have been difficult to manage, and his emotional outbursts prove his undoing in the Breathless finale. By the end, he’s hanging on by a thread having taken a near-fatal overdose.
Oscar had felt shunned by Roman’s perceived rejection of him when he turned up in a torrential downpour to apologize for their fight and found solace in a party and narcotics. His story almost ends tragically, but it allows Roman and Pilar to get on the same page.
This is a good example of how passing around blame instead of looking inward and taking personal responsibility is never a viable long-term solution. Things don’t look great for Oscar, but they look better when the people around him are honest about the difficulties of helping him.
Patricia Goes Private
Lines are especially blurry when it comes to Moa’s doctor-patient relationship with Patricia, which is leaning much more toward an inappropriate romance.
After Patricia’s negative CT scan results, her options are limited. There’s a dangerous surgery to be conducted by Moa himself with help from Pilar, threatened by the intermittent power caused by the storm, and there’s also a very exclusive experimental chemotherapy treatment that’ll require a radical change in the hospital’s private status for Patricia to gain access.
The surgery, despite some complications, is a success. Moa confesses that it does perhaps represent a conflict of interest for him to be Patricia’s doctor given their reciprocated romantic feelings, and Patricia opts for the experimental treatment. But it’s a mostly selfish decision. Does that make it the right one?
Breathless Season 1 Leaves Jesica On Death’s Door
Despite the big ensemble cast it’s easy to claim that Biel and Jesica are the show’s main characters and that their romantic relationship is the most consistent dramatic throughline. Their being together is the outcome that most audiences are probably rooting for, but Breathless Episode 8 provides a tragic and inconclusive note to end things on.
Despite Jesica having been in a relationship with Lluis, it’s clear her heart belongs to Biel, and this is the direction in which things are obviously moving. Lluis can sense it too which is why he threatens Biel to stay away from Jessica under threat of having his medical career ruined.
But Jesica has bigger problems. The season ends with her bleeding to death on the floor after being attacked by the suicidal patient whose life she just saved. Anyone who swallows razors is surely determined to die and being denied that fate doesn’t sit well with them. Jesica pays the price, and Breathless ends with Biel discovering her bleeding out on the floor. Her fate is left unclear, and her romantic choices are left by the wayside for the time being.
Perhaps in Season 2, if it happens.
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